George Smith
Self-taught Assyriologist who found the Babylonian Flood story
- Born
- 1840, London
- Died
- 1876, Aleppo
- Trained as
- Banknote engraver
- Known for
- 1872 reading of the Gilgamesh Flood tablet
- Book
- The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876)
The engraver turned British Museum scholar who in 1872 announced a Babylonian Flood story strikingly like Genesis.
What is George Smith known for?
George Smith began as a banknote engraver in London and taught himself cuneiform by studying Nineveh tablets at the British Museum in his lunch breaks. The museum hired him, and while sorting fragments from Ashurbanipal's library he found part of the eleventh tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which Utnapishtim tells of a great Flood, a boat and birds sent out to find land.
He presented it to the Society of Biblical Archaeology in December 1872. The close match with Noah's story caused a public sensation, and the Daily Telegraph paid for him to dig at Nineveh, where he found more fragments. His 1876 book The Chaldean Account of Genesis, which included the first translation of the Enuma Elish, became a bestseller.
He died of illness at Aleppo in 1876 on his third expedition, aged 36.
Read the Gilgamesh Flood tablet to a London audience in 1872 and first translated the Enuma Elish.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeEnuma Elish
- Rabbit holeUtnapishtim
- PersonAshurbanipal
- PersonSin-leqi-unninni
- PlaceBritish Museum
- PlaceNineveh
Sources
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